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Last Oct. 14, when his Blue Jays teammates were playing in one of the wildest single innings in baseball history in Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers, Devon Travis was on his couch in Palm Beach, Fla., riding the emotional rollercoaster like a regular fan.

“You kind of forget that you were even part of the ball club,” he recalled to the Star. “You honestly become a fan and you’re screaming at the TV, throwing the remote, yelling at the umpires. It’s definitely not the way I wanted to be watching my team play last year.”

The sophomore second baseman, whose promising rookie season was derailed by a recurrent shoulder injury, was recovering from off-season surgery last October when the Jays made their spirited post-season run. When Jose Bautista cranked his game-winning homer, capping that chaotic seventh inning with his unforgettable — and in some quarters, infamous — bat flip, Travis leapt off the couch, even though he could barely move his left arm.

“I think I might have jumped so high I hit the roof,” he says, laughing.

So Tuesday’s wild-card game against the Baltimore Orioles was the 25-year-old’s first taste of Major League Baseball’s second season and his first time playing on a national stage. “It’s a first for me, all around,” he said. “I can’t wait.”

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Last week Travis feared he may have ruined this opportunity when he got tangled up in the on-field brawl with the New York Yankees, tweaking his surgically repaired shoulder. He immediately feared he would be back on the couch while his team played without him.

“I was scared, for sure,” Travis said. “I was calling my parents, calling my agent; I was asking to talk to the doctor. It was definitely a stressful situation.”

But as it turns out he missed only two games, and he says that was mostly as a precaution.

The fact his brawl-induced injury was minor — unlike that of reliever Joaquin Benoit, who is expected to be out at least another two weeks — is a relief not only for Travis, but for the Jays as well. The affable Floridian led the team with a .300 batting average and he has proved himself to be a valuable lead-off hitter. His .321 mark in the second half was the eighth-highest in the American League. While his strikeout rate is higher than you would like for a lead-off hitter, his high average and steady on-base percentage makes him John Gibbons’ best option to write into the top of the order.

Another Jays’ infielder who played a part on last year’s team, but couldn’t take part in the post-season is Darwin Barney, who was added to the 2015 roster in September — after the deadline for playoff eligibility — when Troy Tulowitzki was injured in the final month of the season. As a backup infielder, Barney helped the Jays not lose any ground en route to their first division title in 22 years.

After re-signing with the Jays in the off-season, Barney played a much bigger role this year. He made his way into more than 100 games, earning 77 starts at four different positions and even making his major-league pitching debut, throwing an emergency inning in the Jays’ Canada Day marathon.

“Obviously this year’s different,” the 30-year-old says. “Last game of the season last year I was on a flight home. This year I had the opportunity to be a contributor throughout the season and I feel more a part of the team. So I’m excited for this opportunity to try and make some kind of run this post-season and see how far we can go.”

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